re: #3 Dark_Falcon

Said higher ranks don’t like the idea of women in ground combat (they’re fine nowadays with women as combat pilots), but that’s much less sexism and more concern women won’t be able to handle the physical requirements of ground combat tasks. There is also a justified concern over the fate of a female Marine who falls into the hands of an Islamist enemy.

Why are Islamists a special concern? Women can be and have been brutalized during wartime by non-Islamists as well (for example the Serbs, Japanese, even some Americans, etc.) I’m quite sure male soldiers have also been raped by other men as a way to humiliate & debase them, though it probably doesn’t get talked about or reported very often.